The Virus
by KNDNumbuuh3.4
Summary: The Virus isn't just some thing that you can cure. The way most picture it, you either die trying to get a cure, or you die and become one of the nasty things that we're trying to kill. But, you can solve everything if you try hard enough. Rated T. Apocalypse/Zombie Story. DISCONTIUED
1. Chapter 1

**NOTE: I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THESE CHARACTERS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED TO DC COMICS. **

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><p>As most know, the world is slowing coming to an end, especially with how these modern people are suppose to live blindly. They all walk around, smiles plastered on their faces as they concentrate on the distractions; the distractions being the things that nobody really needs to know, but they find their attention is glued to people building some new houses, and the new thread that came in from the nearby, safe trees. They are all focused on the most unimportant problems that they forget the real things that are going on outside, the real problems that are happening outside their little bubble that they keep themselves in to forget about the real issues.<p>

Of course, there is those who still know what is going on in this world that we live in, that know the problems and are trying to do something that will fix all the world issues. They call these people "The Rebels." You can never really tell who is a rebel or not, so sometimes you just have to guess. The rebels go out of the bubble that everyone else is living in. The people living in the bubbles don't go out, nor do they know who the rebels are and what they are really doing.

Most people believe that inside the bubble, you are safest, which is true, but it is really no way to be living your life, stuck inside some walls that do not allow you to exist. There are hundreds of cities that are like this, that have big and thick walls blocking them from the other side so everyone will stay safe. It didn't always use to be like this though.

Fifty years ago, an outbreak of a deadly virus occurred. The virus was known as "Mors Non Est Finis"(which means "Death Is Not The End" in latin), but most people just referred to it as "The Virus." Nobody is really sure where the virus was created, or how it happened, but everyone knows that one day, people just started dropping dead, then coming back up as something…. Undead. A zombie, for lack of better word. When the Mors Non Est Finis virus started slowly spreading, almost everyone started looking for some type of cure, but nothing seemed to work, which just led to more people turning into walking corpses. Eventually, the virus became stronger, more powerful, taking millions and millions. By this point, the people who were alive and fighting decided that there was no cure, that they would have to find an alternative, so, people started building walls, making a city, keeping everyone inside safe, and keeping all the bad things on the outside.

When word got out that this was the alternative solution, people living started doing this. Of course, it took years to finish, and many lives were still lost in the process, but it managed working. The bad thing was that all the evil things in the world still walked, still waiting for prey. This was how the world worked now, people inside walls, a bubble basically, preventing you from leaving, but it managed keeping you safe, too.

Naturally, not everyone agreed with the methods of solving the problem. This is where The Rebels come in.

Despite the fact the walls had been put up to keep people in, there was always a way out. The Rebels found that way out, and left. Some came back, and some didn't. Another issue had risen from this. Those who came back were sometimes infected by the virus, which would lead to another outbreak in the small city that the wall provided. Most of the time, the issue was erased by shooting what was infected, but that didn't really erase the issue because there was still some who wished to venture out, maybe get a cure for this. But, the person who ran each small, walled-in city did not approve of The Rebels, so certain rebels who were discovered were killed. Others, the ones who were not discovered, kept doing what they were doing in secret. It has been like this for fifty years, and not one day has passed by where a rebel has gone close enough to figuring out how to fix the virus, but it still does not keep them from trying.

Now, here we are, in a small, walled-in city where people "live."

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><p>Her brush-stroke pressed against the side of her house, a red circle being made where she had pressed the paintbrush to. A content smile was on her lips, and despite the fact the world was basically ruined, the young woman managed to keep her hopes up, fortunately.<p>

She hummed blissfully to herself, painting and painting, because this is what she did every day since she graduated high school. She painted, painted, and painted. And what she painted was the beautiful thing, because on the side of the house, where she stood, used to be a blank white wall. When the girl was younger, about 6 or 7, she realized the wall was too bland, so she had gone to her mother, informing her that she wanted to paint it, make it pretty. Her mother told her when she was of age, she could paint freely upon it, but for now she would focus on school. The girl had agreed.

The young woman was now eighteen, had turned that age three months ago, and this was her masterpiece so far. She didn't quite know if it was correct or not, seeing as she had never seen the world like it had used to be, but it looked beautiful to her.

On what used to be a blank, white wall, was now a painted growing tree, apples hanging, a meadow behind, and flowers pricking the painted on grass. Each brush-stroke looked as if it was taken with care, perfectly done to make the most beautiful artwork the small, walled-in city had ever seen, and it was. A few citizens over the past three months had stopped and stared, admiring the hopefulness the girl had possessed.

After all, she just wanted to see the world for how it used to be, not the disaster as it was, but some things are just wishful thinking, unfortunately.

"Kori!" A voice had shouted before a head popped from the window, staring down at the girl who was painting happily. "Dinner was ready like thirty minutes ago and you're still down there painting! Get your ass back up here already, or I'm throwing your food away." Then, the head disappeared, and all that was heard was a sigh escaping the lips of the redhead, known as Kori Anders.

"Fine," the girl grumbled, placing her painting set down before she made her way to the front of the house, opening the door, then closing it behind her softly. Her eyes flickered to the living room, which held her best friend, Donna Troy.

"Your _lovely_ sister already threw your food away," Said Donna, a sad smile gracing her lips as she tucked away of black hair from her blue eyes. "But, luckily for you, your _lovely_ best friend, known as me, saved you some." She grinned, and Kori returned the smile.

"Thanks, Donna," the redhead said gratefully, jumping onto the couch as Donna pulled out the wrapped plate from behind the cushioned pillow and handed it over to the emerald-eyed beauty. "You would think with the apocalypse and everything that Kom would be saving food, not wasting it by throwing it away just to torture me." With that being said, Kori dug in, savoring each bite like it was her last.

"I know!" Donna rolled her eyes. "If your parents were still around, she'd be in so much trouble right about now."

"Yeah, mom and dad would kill her, metaphorically speaking, of course," Kori clarified, yet talked with her mouth full. Her mother and father had disappeared two years ago. Kori refused to face the fact they were dead, but nobody really knows what happened to them, or if they are still alive. But, in respect of Kori, Donna refused to classify Kori's parents as dead.

"So, how's your painting going?" Donna asked curiously, crisscrossing her legs then resting her head in her palms.

"Good," Kori answered, setting her now empty plate down. "I am almost finished with it. I would go out now and finish it up, but since it is getting dark, I do not wish to accidentally ruin my creation." She leaned back, and Donna nodded. "Do you—Do you think the way I am drawing was really what the world use to look like? Or, am I just looking at too many old pictures?"

"I think it looks exactly like the world looks—like how the world used to look." Donna told Kori, before reaching under the coffee table and pulling out old magazines that dated back more than fifty years ago. Kori and Donna had a good friend named Victor who, somehow, managed to get old things that nobody had seen in over fifty years. Of course, things that were discovered like that looked highly suspicious to find, so instead of giving it over to the authorities, Victor—Vic for short—would bring it to Kori and Donna, allowing them to look at things first before Victor sold it to others that wanted the items.

"Look," Donna flipped through the pages of the magazine, careful not to cause any damage. She went straight to one of the pages that had a picture of a meadow. "It looks exactly like the way you are drawing it. You're doing a wonderful job, sweetie."

Kori nodded slowly, her emerald orbs looking at every detail then mentally comparing it to her own artwork. "I wish we could… be somewhere like that…" She trailed off and Donna nodded, understanding how her best friends mind worked.

Kori wanted more in life, but she knew with how the world works that it was just something along the lines of mindless dreaming and wishful thinking. The small, walled-in cities did not really classify being an artist as a real occupation. You had to be something that could help the world, like a doctor, nurse, scientist, or something along the lines of that. Kori wanted to help the world, she really did, but painting was more of her calling, and it was unfortunate that some would disrespect her because of how she chose to live her life. Of course, most couldn't really say anything rude in front of her because her grandparents were the people, along with a few other deceased, that created the walls, made the plan for it. Kori's family was sort of legendary because of it, so nobody could say mean things in front of her, or her older sister, or Donna.

Donna wasn't blood, but she was family. Donna Troy was known as a small miracle around here. Eighteen years ago, a one year old child was brought into the small city. The child was Donna. A man known as Bruce Wayne rescued her, everyone thought him to be a rebel, but the accusation was soon dismissed. Donna was found helpless though because she was merely a child with nobody with her during the rescue. Kori's family decided to take her in and raise her as one of their own before Kori was born, so Donna was basically family, and people respected her just as much.

As silence took over with both girls staring at the picture, wishing for more, a knock was then heard, causing both girls to draw their attention away.

"Get the door!" Kom, the older sister of Kori, shouted. Donna and Kori rolled their eyes, but Donna got up, letting Kori take her time to once again look at the magazine for the hundredth time.

Donna stood on her toes, looking through the small hole to see who it was. "It's Victor," she said, which then took Kori's attention. Because Victor was known by Kori and Donna for about ten years, there was no asking permission of Kom if they could let him in, Donna opened the door, revealing the 6'5" African-American man with boxes in his muscled arms, and a smile on his face.

"Ladies," Victor greeted as Donna took a step back, allowing him to enter.

"Did you bring us presents?" Kori asked, a giggle leaving her lips as she set the magazine down then crisscrossed her legs while Donna shut the door and stole Victor's seat before he could take it.

"Do I ever come here without bringing gifts?" The twenty-year old smirked, setting the boxes down, but quickly placing his big hands upon them before the girls could take a peek. "You know you ladies can't—"

"—Tell anyone about the gifts." Donna and Kori finished in unison, already having this conversation with Victor multiple times before.

"No use in really explaining it to both of you, huh?" He chuckled, taking his seat in the old, squeaky chair. "Okay, have at it." Before the words could even leave him, Donna and Kori were already peeling open the boxes, gasps leaving girls lips by what they saw.

"Is that what I think it is?" They both spoke softly the same words, delight filling them instantly, overwhelming their very souls because they had not seen this in so many years. It was delight to both of them immensely.

Make-Up.

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><p><strong>Authors Note: <strong>_Okay, obviously, as you see, this is a zombie story, and it will get much more interesting as it goes on. I will be updating once a week, I promise. If I don't, then it's probably just me procrastinating or having issues. I recently went through a break-up and it was hard on me, so forgive me. _


	2. Chapter 2

"You got make-up! How is that even possible?" Donna laughed, digging her hands into the box and coming up with handfuls of lipstick, mascara, and blush. "Vic, you're the best person in this damn world!"

Victor leaned back and chuckled, waving his hand nonchalantly as if this was no big deal. "Yeah, yeah."

In fact, it was a big deal though. Make-up wasn't something that you just stumbled upon every day, especially with how the world was. Of course, as the girls rummaged through the boxes, they noted not all the make-up was in the small containers. Most of it was emptied out, or used, but even the used ones were better than none at all. Then again, it wasn't like they needed make-up, seeing as they were beautiful enough as it was.

"Thank you, Victor," Kori smiled, handing a shade of blush to Donna, knowing that it would complement her quite well.

"Ohmigod, they even have your shade!" Donna laughed loudly, pulling out a sealed container before she held it up, her blue eyes flickering between Victor and the blush "Vic, this would look amazing on you."

And just like that, from feeling cocky that he had gotten the lovely ladies something they wanted to now feeling as if his life was endanger, Vic shot up from his seat, shaking his head. "No, no, no."

"Yes!" Kori giggled, biting onto her lip as she looked up at her older friend. "It would look so beautiful on you, Victor."

"No thanks, lil lady." He took a step back, stuffing his hands in his old jean pockets. One thing was for sure, he had to get out of here fast. He may be big and muscular, but taking on these two specific ladies was something that was not to be tested. "You come and find me tomorrow after you both sorted out what you want, okay? I'd stay and chat, but there is no way in hell I'm letting you both girl-ify me."

"Fine, but when you want to be girl-ified, you know where to find us," Donna winked playfully, causing a light blush to invade Victor's cheeks as he reached for the doorknob. Having two beautiful lady friends could be such a handful sometimes, couldn't it?

"Bye, Victor," Kori flashed him a smile, giving a small wave. Then, Victor left, leaving the two ladies to dump all the containers of make-up onto the coffee table so they could separate what they wanted, and what they were going to give back to Victor tomorrow.

That's how the rest of their night went. They both went through the lipstick, the blush, the eyeliner, and everything else that was in the box and separated it into four different piles. One pile was for all the things that would look good on Kori, the second pile was for all the things that would suit Donna, the third pile was for everything they would charitably give Kom, and the fourth pile was everything they would put back into the box after they were done. The process took about three hours, because they were both very thorough, and they bickered a bit about if they should really be giving Kom any make-up, but Kori being the sweetheart that she was, she couldn't not give her sister anything.

At about 11pm, Kori gave out a yawn, then rubbed her sleepy emerald eyes.

"Feeling tired?" Donna asked, then yawned. Yawns were contagious after all.

"Yeah, I should go to sleep," another yawn, "It is late." It was a simple, tired statement, but Donna agreed as well.

Standing up, the redhead placed one box upon another then brought them into her arms. One box had her things in it, then the other had Kom's, because she might as well drop the make-up off at her sister's door on her way to bed. "I will see you when I wake, Donna," she smiled, waiting until Donna stood up to kiss her forehead.

"Goodnight, sweetie," Donna let herself fall back onto the couch as Kori left the living room, then walked up the stairs, leaving the box for Kom at the front of her door before she continued to her own room.

Kori pressed her hip against her door, pushing it open and setting the box down onto her old dresser. She peeked down the hallway and was able to see a small glimpse of Donna standing up and then walking into the kitchen for probably something to drink.

For some reason, Kori couldn't really manage going to sleep until she knew Donna was safely inside her room. Luckily, the house was old and when you walked down the hallway, the floorboards would creak and you would hear someone coming, so she'd know when Donna decided to rest her beautiful blue eyes.

Sighing, Kori closed her bedroom door, then walked to her closet and stripped out of her paint covered clothing. Reaching for pajamas, she slowly dressed herself, feeling as if she had bricks stuck to her feet, making it hard to put on her clothing, but that was just the tiredness that was weighing her down.

Once she was fully clothed, she crawled into bed, going under the covers and making herself feel warm and cozy. The only things she could hear was the old tree outside her house scraping against her window. She was going to have to ask Victor if he could cut some of those branches off because it gave her chills to hear those sounds. But the thing that scared her most was the silence, not hearing the creaking sounds of the floorboards.

Her mind drifted off to what Donna was doing right now, but her thoughts immediately stopped when she heard the creaks, which set off a sigh of relief. It might be silly of her to think that someone could snatch Donna from her life, but she had also thought, two years ago, that it was silly to think that someone… or something could snatch her parents from her life. In her opinion, she was just being careful.

But now, knowing that Donna was in her room safe and sound, she felt undying thankfulness for the creaky floorboards, then, she fell asleep.

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><p>The sunlight was like her wake-up call; the way it stretched through her window at 6am and decided to kiss her tanned skin. It was warm and sweet against her, so she pushed off her blankets, still half-asleep. It was instinctive for her to wake-up around this time. Maybe it was because she enjoyed watching the sunrise and feeling the crisp morning air chill her skin and give her goosebumps, but even if she couldn't put an exact reason on why she liked mornings so much, it wouldn't change the fact that she liked them.<p>

Softly, Kori combed her fingers through her hair, pushing the stray strands of red hair away from her face and neatly behind her ear. She propped herself up on her elbows, blinking to adjust her eyes to the blinding sun. She took a few seconds getting out of bed because she wasn't in a rush to get up yet. Victor wouldn't be awake for another thirty minutes to an hour, so she took her sweet time.

After a few minutes, she climbed out of bed, getting out of her pajamas then changing into a simple black dress before she slipped on her shoes. She walked over towards her dresser, which had a mirror nailed to the wall so she could see her morning reflection. Picking up her brush, Kori started untangling her knots, doing the common one-hundred brushstrokes to get all the tangles out. Surprisingly, it worked on her hair all the time, so by the hundredth brush, she was done, and her hair looked as long and lovely as it always did.

She walked down the hallway after exiting her room, then went down the stairs and to the living room, where the box of things they didn't want was sitting on the coffee table like she remembered it last night. She still had a few more minutes to waste before Victor would be roaming around somewhere in the small, walled-in city, so she went straight to the kitchen and grabbed some toast then swiped some strawberry jelly upon it before munching on that for breakfast. She would usually make breakfast for everyone, but since she was going to see Victor this morning, she decided against it. Although, when she was done eating her jelly toast, she scribbled a note for Donna and left it taped to the fridge. Then, Kori went back to the living room, grabbed the box and left.

The note read clearly:

_Donna(and Kom), I went to go and see Victor.  
><em>_I will be back later. Sorry I did not make breakfast.  
><em>_Love, Kori._

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><p>It wasn't like cellphones existed anymore, like they did fifty years ago, so Kori always had to follow her gut to tell her where Victor would be this morning. Most of the time, she was right, and she'd see him jogging or doing pull-ups from a strong branch that could support him. This time, as she walked with a small skip in her step, small hums trailing behind her happily, like the world was not some zombie-filled world and that everything was as beautiful like the art she was painting, the beautiful young woman saw her muscular and bald friend stretching, most likely getting ready to do an early morning run.<p>

"Victor!" Kori called to him and smiled when his attention was drawn to her.

"Hey, lil lady." He grinned, jogging up to her because he assumed that the box was heavy and she needed a hand, but she was much more stronger than she appeared to be. "I thought you and Donna would have kept the things a bit longer, to be honest."

"No, after you left, we stayed up most of the night separating all of it." She told him, handing the box over when he reached for it. "I did not interrupt your stretching, did I?"

"No, no, no. I was just finishing up, actually. Gotta lot of things to do today that require more of my attention than I would like," Victor sighed.

"Anything that I can help with?" She asked politely, clasping her hands behind her back then teetering on the heel of her shoes. "You know I would do anything to help you, Victor."

"I know you would, Kor, but it's really more of a personal—"

"_Duuuuuuuuuude,_" It was the most screeching use of the word 'dude' Kori had ever heard in her entire life, and, worst of all, she didn't know where it came from until she saw a scrawny, short guy running up behind Victor. His shoes were untied and his hair had grass in it, which pretty much stained it green. His eyes were also green, but more of a dark green, and it was natural, unlike the color of his hair. He was tripping over his own two feet, rushing himself to get to Victor, whom was way taller than him, and much more buffer. "Dick is going to kill you! You were suppose to come back, like, last night, dude! And who the hell are you—" His feet scraped against the ground, coming to a halt before his mouth dropped at the sight of the exotic redhead standing there. "Shit! You didn't tell me you were with a total hottie!" The, what looked like a young boy but was really probably around Kori's age, stomped his foot onto Victor's, causing a frustrated grumble to erupt from him.

"Get back, grass-stain," Victor nudged the "grass-stain" away with his elbow while Kori giggled behind her hand at the nickname.

"_Duuuude_," The whiny use of the word came out again and Kori inwardly winced. "Introduce me."

Victor sighed heavily, like he was preparing for this day since he met Kori and now the day had arrived. "Grass-stain, this is Kori. Kori _Anders_." Upon hearing Kori's last name, "grass-stains" mouth dropped. "Kori, this is grass-stain."

"_Duuude,_" Again, with the whiny sound. "You know her?" His feet started bouncing on the ground, like a child receiving some candy. But then, he stopped, realizing how childish he looked. "I mean, hi, Kori," he slicked his green hair back. "I'm Gar. Garfield Logan." His voice came out husky.

Victor groaned and Kori laughed, then answered with, "Greetings, Garfield." She smiled at him, tilting her head to the side then giving a questionable look towards Victor. She had known Victor for a long time, yet she hadn't ever met this Garfield Logan before, so it puzzled her why Victor kept Gar a secret from her. Unless, they met just days ago, then that would be understandable.

"You're beautiful," Gar cooed, and Victor rolled his eyes. It was like Gar had gone complete eye-hearts in love with her within a matter of seconds.

"And," Victor began, smirking, "she's also way out of your league."

"Dude, who wouldn't want to go out with me?" Gar popped his collar, flashing a wink at Kori.

It was like Kori uncovered a whole new side of Victor's life as she watched the two "boys" bicker back and forth with each other. She couldn't stop herself from tittering softly under her breath, trying to contain each bubble of angelic laughter but soon, once the boys started really getting into it, she could no longer contain herself. She slapped her hand over her mouth then exploded into laughter, doubling over in pain. This was just too priceless. In all the ten years she had known Victor, she had never seen him act like this with someone else, but she supposed that just meant she didn't know him as well as she thought she had. Who really cared about that thought? She needed to figure out how long Victor had known this Garfield Logan. If they've known each other for a while, and by the looks of it, they were close friends, then she would 1. Have to scold Vic about not introducing her to Garfield, and 2. Get to know Garfield better so they could exchange some stories.

"She thinks I'm funny," Gar smirked, feeling quite proud of himself.

Before Victor could say anything, and trust that he was about to say something, Kori's laughter faded and she spoke between a few soft chuckles, "You are very funny, Garfield."

"Don't encourage him!" Victor narrowed his eyes at her, then at Garfield. "Why did you come here anyways? You know not to bother me, grass-stain."

"Would have bothered you a long time ago if I knew you hung out with girls," Garfield mumbled under her breath but Kori was able to catch it. "And I came here because Dick wants you."

Kori raised a brow at the mention of the name, but she decided not to question because both boys were sort of in the middle of a conversation. "Tell him I'll be there in a second," Victor said.

"How about you go and I escort the lovely Miss. Anders back to my place?" Gar suggested in a flirtatious way, giving a waggle to his eyebrows.

"No!" Victor hissed, nudging Gar away, "Go, grass-stain! Don't make me kick your scrawny ass away!" And jut like that, from flirtatious to fearing for his life, Garfield scampered away, tripping over his two feet as he ran.

"Sorry about that, Kori," Vic apologized bashfully, giving a sheepish smile.

"No worries," she waved it off, but couldn't stop herself from asking, "Who is Dick?"

Victor bit his lip before managing an uneasy smile. "A dick."

Kori rolled her eyes at him and folded her arms under her chest, giving him the most 'really?' look of the century.

"He's just... Dick! Look, I only met him a few days ago, so that's my perfectly logical reason for you not knowing about him."

"But, how about Garfield? How long have you known him for, Victor? How many other secret friends are you not telling Donna and I about?" She pouted, a bit grumpy now. "Are you embarrassed of us?"

"No! No, of course not! Look, I'll explain it to you later, okay? But I really have to get going, Kor."

"Promise me you will explain it to me later?"

"Promise." Victor gave her a toothy smile, "Now, I seriously gotta go, but like I said, I promise. I'll talk to you later, okay?"

Kori nodded, giving him silent permission to leave, seeing as he was supposedly late for something that she had no clue about. "Okay."

With one more big smile being passed her way, Victor was off, jogging away with the box in his hands. She would have given him a goodbye kiss on the cheek but he knew better enough than to ask for one because of her now agitated mood with him. She couldn't really see Victor keeping secrets from her like that. Garfield seemed like a nice guy who couldn't possibly cause that much trouble, besides maybe a few harmless pranks(because he seemed like the type of guy that would be into prank-pulling.)

Kori had so many questions fluttering around in her mind that she didn't know which one she wanted answers to most. Who was Dick? Why didn't Victor introduce them? Why didn't he introduce her to Garfield? Was there something wrong with them? Is there other things that she didn't know about Victor?

Of course there was!

Everyone has secrets, right? Right. And she should respect his decision to keep certain things from her.

Yet, Kori still found herself standing where he had left her, standing there to ponder about everything else that he could be hiding from her. One of the main questions she asked herself was: Where did Victor get all the "gifts" he would bring Donna and herself? That was really a question she had been wondering for a very long time now. It was extremely odd for anyone to just magically "stumble" upon boxes of make-up. That was something that wasn't just sitting around waiting to be taken. But, out of respect of Victor, Kori and Donna trusted him enough to believe that he didn't get himself into danger by getting all the things that he got on a sometimes regular basis.

But now, with these secret friends he had, Kori's suspicious was rising slightly, not enough to accuse him of anything dangerous, but enough to accuse him of lying to her when he didn't need to. He was allowed to have other friends besides herself and Donna, and Kori wanted him to know that. Then again, since that was true, why should Kori be so suspicious of him having other friends? It was his life after all, and with how the world was, he should be able to live it anyway that he wanted to. So, maybe she should just let this go and walk back home.

That's what she did, walked back home and went straight to the side of her house where she left her paint set the other day. She picked up the brush, and stared at her masterpiece, then let out a sigh and started painting away.

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><p><strong>Authors Note: <strong>_I'm probably a bit rusty at my writing skills when it comes to this, so I hope I did good. The update is earlier than I thought it would be, but I found myself very excited to write this, plus I am very bored and it's a great way to get my mind off certain things. _

_Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Don't expect that I will update early like this again. Make sure to **review** your opinions! _


	3. Chapter 3

It had been a few days since Kori or Donna heard from Victor. They had gone out countless times looking for him, but they kept coming up empty handed. Kori even told Donna about Garfield, the young man she had met from Victor. Donna as well had never known Victor to have any other friends besides the girls, so it also was a shock to her when Kori told her. Nonetheless, they had no trace of where Victor was, and they were either feeling worried about his safety, or agitated that he hadn't stopped by yet to discuss anything with them. Both girls even went out to look for Garfield, after Kori had gave a small description of what he looked like. They had gone around the small, walled-in city, asking around and each answer gave no help to them. It was starting to bother both of them.

How hard was it to spot a guy with grass in his hair?

Apparently, it was hard.

By the fifth day of Victor missing from their lives, Kori and Donna once again stepped out of the house. They both wore rain coats; Kori's being purple, and Donna's being black with matching boots. They walked slowly and squinted, trying to see from the thick rain that was pouring down upon them fiercely.

"Where do you think he is?" Donna asked.

"I wish I knew," Kori muttered in response. "I should have followed him when he left that day, then maybe I would know or at least get an idea of where he is."

"I'm sure he's somewhere around here. I mean, how far could he have possibly gone in this city?" Donna teased, trying to lighten the mood. It was like Kori had a personal dark, gloomy cloud hanging above her head, showering her in guilt. "He's an adult though, Kori. I'm sure he's fine."

"Yeah, you are probably right." Her eyes lowered to the ground, staring at her own reflection when they would pass puddles. "But I am worried."

"I'm worried, too. That's why we're looking." Donna said and kept her eyes straight ahead.

Nodding, Kori kept her eyes to the ground for one more second to make a wish on the drops of rain before she looked up and used her eyes to scan around, hoping that maybe, just maybe, she'd see Victor, or maybe even Garfield.

As if the wish had actually worked, Kori saw someone running in the rain. Too short to be Victor, but short enough to be Garfield.

"Hey, you!" Kori exclaimed loudly, digging her feet into the ground as she took off into a sprint. The blurry figure looked back at her, and she could see, even from the distance and through the rain, patches of grass stuck in the figures hair. "Garfield!" She screamed louder and the figure took off running faster, tripping over his shoes and just that small action made her remember how Garfield had been tripping over his laces when he ran away from Victor, scared.

Donna ran after Kori, trying her best to catch up, but when Kori Anders was motivated and determined to do something, then, hell, she was going to do it, which seemed to give the redhead some type of adrenaline rush to run faster than she had in a long time.

Her muscles ached and burned from running this hard, but Kori kept at it, trailing behind the figure until she knew for a fact that it was indeed Garfield Logan. "Garfield, stop!" She cried out, frustrated. Why was he running away from her? "Please, just—" Her body hurled downwards and her hands crushed against the gravel from her impact of tripping. "Dammit!" She hissed under her breath.

"Are you okay?!" Donna gasped, running up to her fallen friend.

"Yeah, just go! Run, Donna, get him!" Kori pushed herself off from the ground as Donna nodded and kept running after Garfield. A few seconds behind, Kori continued on sprinting, feeling her hands burn from what she assumed to be a cut on her palms. The dirt probably didn't help her wound.

Donna tailed Garfield easily now because of the small few seconds Kori had fallen, Garfield had slowed to make sure she was okay, which gave Donna the seconds to catch up to him. She was closer now, so close that she extended her arm out, trying to grasp the fabric of his loose shirt. "Stop running," Donna growled irritably, then she grabbed him by the back of his white t-shirt. She smirked, yanking him down so they'd both collapse.

Garfield and Donna rolled on the ground; the gravel scratching and scraping up there skin.

"Get off." Kori could hear Garfield's voice as she approached from behind. She fell to the ground, assisting Donna at keeping him restrained to the ground. For someone who was scrawny, Kori had expected him to be a lot less stronger than he was.

"Garfield, stop!" Kori demanded roughly, grunting when he kicked her leg. "What is your problem?" He kept kicking and shoving, waving his hands around and squirming to get away from them. Kori didn't understand why he was being so difficult about this, why he couldn't just stop and talk. He seemed fine he day they met; he was flirting and he seemed so nice in general. But now, he was angry, you could see it in his forest eyes. He wanted them to get away, and get away now.

"Ugh, enough of this already!" Donna snarled, aiming her fist back before she punched Gar across the face, knocking him out. "Finally."

"Donna!" Kori scolded but was silently relieved that her friend took control of the situation.

"What? Kori, he was trying to kick us! I just acted in self-defense." Donna huffed, wiping her wet black hair out of her eyes before she stared down at the unconscious young man who was helplessly on the wet gravel. "I thought you said he was nice."

"Well, he was when I met him," the redhead sighed, and almost felt like passing out on the ground herself because of how exhausted she felt. She definitely did not see this coming when she woke up.

* * *

><p>"And what exactly is Kom going to say when she sees us carrying around what looks to be a dead body?" Donna asked, throwing Kori a questioning glance as she trudged on forward with half of Garfield's weight being held by her.<p>

After they had took a second to catch their breath from taking Gar down, they realized that standing over an unconscious body definitely didn't look right so they had hauled his body up from the ground and positioned his arms to wrap around them. Because of the heavy rainfall, it almost looked like they were carrying their drunk friend back home. The probably being that alcohol was extremely rare to fall upon so the odds of him getting intoxicated were highly, highly slim. But the rain was heavy so they were hoping that would diminish curious glances as they dragged Garfield by the toes.

"She is not going to say anything about it, Donna!" Kori groaned, "What makes you think she is even going to be home right now? She is probably off doing Kom things."

"Well, still, I think we should tie a rope to him and pull him up into your room and—"

"What the hell is that?" The familiar voice caused both young women to flinch on the spot. They both instinctively just wanted to drop the body and run for their lives, but they were more responsible than that. "Is he passed out or something?" Kom laughed, leaning against the front door frame.

"No, he is—" Panicked green eyes looked over at Donna, searching for some type of help to finish out her lie. Was there even a good lie in existence that didn't make this look bad?

"Asleep," Donna blurted out spontaneously, keeping her steps going while trying to act as nonchalantly as possible.

As they neared closer, Kom got a better glimpse of Garfield's body. "There is no way in hell he is sleeping. Fuck, is he dead?"

"No!" Both girls shouted instantly.

"He is not dead! It is... complicated but trust that everything is okay and the only person getting in trouble will be Garfield here. Now, if you would excuse us, we are taking him up to my room to fix his wound. He bumped his head on a tree and knocked out, so we had to carry him back here. It has been one long awful walk. There is witnesses that know he merely bumped his head though, right Donna?" Kori turned to Donna, smiling confidently.

"Right." Donna nodded, mimicking the same overly-confident smile.

Kom paused and folded her arms over her chest before squinting her eyes down and flickering them to both Kori and Donna. Kom was way too today to even really care about what the hell was going on right now, but might as well scare the girls while she was at it. "Fine, but why is his hair green?"

"From the grass." Kom's little sister answered. "He slid down onto the grass after hitting his head on the tree."

"Okay, yeah, I've lost interest in this conversation. Just make sure you guys don't track dirt in here because if you do I'm not cleaning it up." Kom said primly then pushed past all three of them and disappeared into the rain.

"Did she just cut us some slack?" Donna let out air of disbelief.

"I think so, but I do not care at the moment. We need to get inside." Kori answered and Donna nodded. The girls carried Garfield's weight inside, kicking the door shut then dragged him up the staircase, which was way worse than the three-mile walk they had to do in the pouring rain. After successfully getting his body up the stairs, they dragged him to Kori's bedroom. Donna was left to support his weight alone for a few minutes while Kori went to grab a dirty sheet from a basket to lay across her clean bed sheets. After that, they dumped his body onto her bed then slumped onto the floor with a sigh.

"Finally." Donna breathed, drained. It was only 10am.

"Do you think he will wake up soon?" Kori closed her eyes and leaned against her bed. The world around her felt as if it was ebbing away slowly, like she couldn't grasp onto the words of her friend long enough before her consciousness slipped away and she fell asleep.

"Kori?" Donna reached out gingerly, giving the redhead a very small shake to see if she was still being responsive. "Okay, you're out." The blue-eyed beauty laughed, pushing herself off the ground then grabbing a quilt before wrapping Kori in it. "Sleep well, honey. And don't worry, I'll watch Garfield and when your awake, we'll get all the questions that we have answered." She whispered soothingly into Kori's ear, managing to see a tiny smile spread.

* * *

><p>It was maybe a good few hours until Kori's breathtaking emerald eyes snapped open and she stretched out all her limbs tiredly. She almost forgot the events that took place earlier today, so when she arose from her spot on the floor where she was curled, it came to a bit of a surprise to her when she saw the sleeping Garfield Logan on her bed.<p>

Her eyes blinked and adjusted before it fully came back to her. Oh yes, Donna had knocked him unconscious after they had to chase him in the pouring rain. That definitely had been so much fun.

"I see you're awake now." That oh so comforting voice intruded upon all the millions upon millions of thoughts that were swarming around in Kori's mind. So many unanswered questions right now.

"Has he waken yet?" The redhead cut straight to the point.

"No, just stirred now and then. And made some _annoying_ groaning sounds, but that's it, sweetie."

Kori nodded thoughtfully. "Did you get any sleep?"

"Nope," Donna shook her head. "Thought that if I dozed off too that he'd wake up and run away again, but it's fine. I'm not really tired."

"If you want, I can watch him while you take a well-deserved nap." Kori offered warmly, flashing her friend a quick yet sweet smile.

"No thanks, sweetheart." She answered back, leaning against the wall for support. Her feet hurt from standing so much. "Y'know, I never knew it was actually possible for grass to strain your hair green." A comment made certainly for Garfield's undeniably green hair.

"I know!" Kori let out an outburst of laughter before she took a few steps towards the unconscious Garfield. "But I guess it is possible. I wonder how he even got grass in his hair to the point where it stained." She extended her hand out before her fingers brushed gingerly against the green strands of hair. Softly, she smoothed pieces down and picked a blade of grass out of his hair. Then, Garfield's hand shot up and he snatched her hand with open solid green eyes. Kori let out a shriek and Garfield did the same before releasing her hand and backing into the headboard of the bed. Donna yanked a gun out from behind Kori's dresses(yes, they had guns for protection. Everyone did) then she pointed it straight at Garfield, ready to fire.

"Don't shoot, don't shoot!" Gar yelped, holding his hands up in surrender.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't shoot you in the leg!" Donna barked.

"Donna!" Kori hissed, giving her head a small shake. Groaning, Donna lowered the gun, but didn't bother keeping the safety on.

"Thanks," Gar mumbled, twiddling with his fingers.

Kori blinked. What had happened to the man that had been running away from them in the pouring rain? This, the young man sitting and twiddling in her bed, was definitely not the same one they had chased after. "Are you bi-polar or something?" A halfhearted laugh was heard from Kori.

"No! No, I just..." Gar trailed off into a constellation of thoughts.

"You just what?" Donna snapped, fuming.

"I just, I don't know." He shrugged his shoulder, furrowed his brows and looked up at both girls hopefully.

"Why did you run away from us?" Kori asked, mentally checking off that question from her mental mind list.

Garfield stayed mute.

"Why did you run away from us?" Donna repeated for Kori; gaze hard.

"I had to! You both wouldn't understand why I did it if I told you!"

"Cut the bullshit. Where's Victor?" Donna went straight to the point of all of this, which was Kori's dismay. The similarity was that both Donna and Kori wanted, needed the answers, but Kori had more questions; Donna wanted to skip all of that.

"Why do you instantly assume I know where he is?" Gar pouted, crossed his arms and huffed.

"How long have you known Victor?" Kori popped her question with a bite to her lip. _Please do not let it be more than a few weeks._

"How long have you think I've known Victor?" Gar challenged back, quirking a brow.

Kori desperately wanted to say only a few weeks, but if he was only going to answer what she wanted to hear, then she had to lie. "Years."

Gar sighed, mumbled a curse under his breath then said, "Yeah, okay, we've known each other fora few odd years. Maybe eight at maximum."

Kori's mouth dropped, disbelief washed over her eyes, and thoughts quickly swarmed around wildly in her head, beckoning her to ask more questions that she knew would probably displease her more than she was right now. _Why?_ _Why_ had Victor kept this secret for so long? _Why_ did it even matter?

"I can't believe that asshole never told us he had other friends!" Donna scoffed, "What the hell? Where's Victor right now?"

"I cant tell you!" Garfield whined. A child stomping his feet when he couldn't get what he wanted was what Garfield reminded Donna of.

"Why not?" Kori snarled; her agitated side sparking.

"It's a secret!" He griped.

"A secret to die for?" Donna cackled, smirking as she lifted the gun back up.

Garfield gulped, his face washing white with fear. "I-I," he stammered then blurted out, "Victor does underground boxing!"

_What?_

* * *

><p><strong>Authors Note: <strong>_Another early update. Consider it a Christmas gift. This isn't my favorite chapter because I think I did a poor job on this.I didn't spellcheck or anything so forgive me on my mistakes. Christmas isn't my favorite. _


	4. Chapter 4

"Underground boxing?" Donna spat out, disgusted. "Do you honestly think that we are going to believe that crap?"

"I'm not lying! He does underground boxing, okay!?"Gar hissed and snarled.

"Oh, c'mon! He would have definitely told us about that! Actually, scratch that—underground boxing doesn't even exist! Do you know hard it would be to do that here? In this world? In this walled-in city that we live in?! Think about it for a second!" Donna flailed her hands around, waving her gun carelessly. "If he did do underground boxing, why would he remain friends with the girl whose grandparents built this place?"

Gar stayed quiet, biting back every little illogical word he was going to say before he just slumped against Kori's bed, breathing out air slowly then in a muttered whisper, he spoke out, "I'm not lying though."

"Bull—"

"Donna enough!" Kori cut her friend off before anymore arguments would arrive about this subject. Kori had to think about this as logically as she possibly could. She could understand what Donna was saying; how Victor would be stupid to risk doing what he supposedly did while remaining friends with the founder's granddaughter. After all, the city did expect her to someday do something great and magnificent for their city, but honestly she wasn't into that idea quite well.

Even if Donna's points did raise suspicion if Garfield was telling the truth or not, Kori had to admit that underground boxing was actually a possible thing to be a… _thing_. She mentally decided that the only way to actually know the truth was to get actual proof, rather than a stranger's word.

"You say Victor does underground boxing, yeah?" Kori looked towards Gar.

"Yup," Gar nodded quick, confirming.

"Then take us to where it goes on." The redhead demanded, holding up her finger to silence the comment she _knew_ Donna would bring seconds later if she hadn't stopped her.

"You're joking, right?" Gar snorted, a goofy grin covering his lips, as if the Kori Anders was actually joking about something as serious as this. The silence answered Gar's question. "You're not joking?" He quirked a brow and puffed some air of disbelief out. "Did you not hear what…. your crazy friend with a gun was saying, like, a minute ago!? If it did exist, which it does, then bringing you, Kori Anders, into it would be the worst thing ever! I'm not taking you." If he was standing on the ground, he would have stomped his foot to make his point.

"Will you take us now?" Donna pulled her gun up and pointed it directly at his head.

Gar swallowed and yelped out, "Definitely!"

With that, Kori smirked.

* * *

><p>"I can't believe I let two <em>girls<em> force me into this."

"In all fairness to you, it was two girls with guns." Donna wore her cocky smile proudly with the gun sneakily hidden inside her jacket; her finger on the trigger.

"Donna stop being mean." Kori smiled sympathetically towards Gar. Despite the fact they held a gun to his head and forced him to take them to Victor, she still felt a bit of pity for him.

"Yeah Donna, stop being mean." The corners of Gar's mouth raised into a very arrogant looking smile.

"I'll still shoot you, grass-boy." Donna grunted and Kori held back the small outburst of a giggle with her hand.

"If you shoot me, how would you know where to find Victor?" Gar shot back, still coming off as arrogant, which he was indeed.

"Speaking of Victor, where is this place exactly? It feels like we have been walking for a while." Kori spoke up, ceasing the next round of bickering that would have came from Donna and Garfield. It was almost funny how they both bickered like old friends.

"We're getting closer, just hold your horses, okay ladies?" Gar answered, biting onto his lip.

"More like hold my gun," Donna muttered, which easily earned a scolding look from Kori. You would think that because Donna was older that she would be the much more mature one, but, in certain situations like this one, Donna lacked the maturity. Instead, she was just a beautiful young woman with a gun hidden between the fabric of her clothing, which was pretty threatening.

"I wish it was still raining," Kori sighed softly, clasping her hands behind her back as she gazed up into the gloomy sky. Her emerald eyes stared deeply into the sluggish, depressing clouds that swirled sweetly. It was almost mesmerizing how the clouds moved. She had watched them before, thousands of times. She didn't care if they were black like the souls of some, or white and pure like sheep's. They were still beautiful to her; she had even painted them before she was able to paint against the side of her house.

"Rain is great talk when you're forcing a guy to show you something very top secret." Gar remarked before swallowing the thick lump in his throat when Donna poked the gun at his back.

"Just shut up and keep walking, grass-boy." Donna rolled her blue eyes and sighed, exasperated with his comments. "And Kori, before you say anything about being _nice_, know that I could have been a lot meaner than how I am acting right now."

Kori stayed mute, deciding that broaching this conversation, if you could even call it that, would surely be a mistake. So, the redhead just sighed, chewing on her lip nervously before her thoughts returned to Victor Stone again. What a mysterious man he turned out to be.

"We're here," Gar stated flatly, nervousness evident in his tone as his footsteps soon stopped abruptly.

"I don't see anything," Donna pointed out the obvious. But, one thing that she wasn't really counting as a thing to be looked at was the solid, metal plate that was on the ground, seemingly nailed in so nobody could pop it up and go in. Who would even want to go in? "Unless you're talking about the thing that leads to the old sewage system?"

Kori looked visibly disgusted, resisting the urge to gag. "Please, tell me it is not in there." She couldn't imagine Victor boxing in an underground sewage system. Then again, she couldn't imagine him boxing at all. He seemed so sweet.

"Oh," A suddenly wicked grin spread onto Garfield's lips. It was the type of smile someone would get when they were daring someone to do something that they really didn't want to do. "It is. Sorry, ladies. But, hey, if you don't want to go down there, then I can just tell Vic that you all are up here and wanting to chat. Y'know, then that would be getting rid of me and everything; perfect solution."

Donna rolled her eyes then slipped her gun into her back pocket before she straightened her posture, as if getting ready. "We're not stupid; let's go." She nodded, mainly to herself.

"Are you sure?" Gar asked, glancing over his shoulder to make sure nobody was looking, but for some reason this area was completely desolate, so he was just basically stalling himself a few extra seconds.

"We are sure." Kori nodded then inhaled deeply.

"Okay, then, if you say so," Gar cackled softly under his breath then slid his fingers under the metal plate. He slowly pried it up, making a few occasional grunting sounds before the plate screeched. The thing was obviously old, which was evident by the sounds it was making.

The girls had obviously prepared for a smell that would knock both of them down a peg, but instead, there was no horrifyingly disgusting smell that would make them gag to death, which easily shocked both of them pretty well. But, if this was where Victor was doing underground boxing, then it would make sense that it didn't smell like crap, literally speaking.

"Ladies first," Gar gestured to the hole. Kori and Donna peeked down; their eyes met with nothing but pitch black darkness.

"There isn't any alligators or anything that can kill us, right?" Donna swallowed nervously. _Fear is irrational right now. I'm the one with the gun_, She thought to herself.

"Nope!" Gar chirped. "Maybe some rats, but that's all!" His smile was so big it could seem fake, but it wasn't; it was indeed completely genuine.

"No time like the present then, right Kor?" Donna's blue eyes flickered over to the crimson-haired girl, who liked highly unsteady.

"Uh, yeah, right." Kori nodded quick and hastily then carefully maneuvered herself down, where her feet found a built-in ladder. She looked up at Garfield, "Is there any other way to get there?" He shook his head so she sighed then pushed away every discouraging thought that was swarming through her mind a thousand-miles-per-second. Then, with a deep and possibly last fresh breath of air, she shuffled down the ladder, taking one careful step down, counting each one as she took it(_1,2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10..., _Her thoughts had echoed.) before her heel finally scuffed against concrete. Solid concrete. Thank the heavens.

Kori looked up, relieved. "I have reached the ground!" She yelled up, hearing the endlessly dark space around her echo her words repeatedly. She waited a few seconds, waiting for Donna or Garfield to come join her, but all she heard was mumbling, and what also sounded like bickering, coming from above. Then, after a few minutes later, Kori heard a loud "FINE!" before she saw Donna making her way down the ladder, counting her steps in hums rather than silently like Kori had done.

"Kori, grab my hand. It's so dark!" Donna whined and Kori did as she was told, taking Donna's hand and carefully guiding her a few steps away from the ladder.

"You guys okay?" Garfield's voice rung down to them.

"We are fine!" Kori answered, blinking as if to adjust her eyes to the darkness.

"Okay, I'm coming down now!" It occurred to Kori in that second that Garfield was truly showing them in the right direction, because he could have easily led them down this godforsaken sewage thing then left them there to die! But he didn't, instead he, too, had climbed down the ladder carefully then steadied himself upon the solid ground. Of course, he did all of this _after_ he closed the metal plate that concealed this entrance way.

"Please, tell me there is some type of light because I honestly don't fancy walking around blindly in this darkening use-to-be sewage place." Donna spoke up and tightened her grip on Kori's hand.

"Well, there isn't any type of flashlight, but there should be-" His sentence trailed out and you could hear him shuffling around, patting down areas until he finished cheerfully, "Found it!" Then, there was the sound of something rubbing up against something before a small amount of light illuminated around Garfield. He broke out into a teasing, goofy grin. "Do I look scary?" He waggled his eyebrows jokingly.

"Very." Donna deadpanned, stepping closer to Garfield with Kori trailing behind. "Now, which way do we go?"

"Follow _meee_!" He screeched almost, pointing ahead and marching off. Kori and Donna followed behind him closely, mainly following the match he was holding rather than Gar himself.

The entire walk they took, which felt like maybe thirty minutes, almost seemed like for nothing. The couldn't hear anybody boxing, or the sounds of cheers from people winning. Hell, they didn't even see any other light sources except for the one that Gar was holding for them. Maybe he was actually planning on killing them by leading them into a mysterious place then pulling out the hidden weapon they didn't notice and slaughtering both of the girls right on the spot, but that didn't seem very likely.

Because of how unsure Kori and Donna were feeling about this now, they had both inched away from Gar and his match of light, thinking that, hey, if he was planning on killing them then they could at least be a few steps behind him so they could have possibly a few seconds of life remaining before they meet their end in a sewage system by a guy with green in his hair from grass.

Their doubtfulness was washed away though a few minutes later when they saw light. And not from the match that Gar was holding, which was starting to fade unfortunately.

Then, they could hear voices; cheering, shouting, yelling, grunting, and talking.

"Are... Are we there?" Kori whispered.

Gar nodded in response then waved the small match he was holding so it would burn out. "We're here." His tone no longer sounded cheerful or boyish anymore. It sounded nervous and maybe even frightened. He clearly didn't want to go through with this.

As they drew closer to the small amount of light that was coming from under some crack, the shouting voices grew stronger, booming. Until, they were all a step away from the crack that had the light.

The voices were almost deafening now.

Gar sighed heavily, deflating basically. "Just... keep your heads down and blend in." The girls didn't know what that warning really meant but before either one of them could question the meaning behind that, Gar had pushed against some poorly made wall. Kori and Donna moved their arms up to shield their eyes from the blinding light that had hit them fiercely. Their eyes had adjusted to the darkness so much that they hadn't expected this.

Suddenly, it seemed like they were somewhere else entirely different. Emerald and blue eyes adjusted before blinking and seeing the sight before them.

There was people, many of them. All cheering and shouting, hollering names out. Most of them had a beverage in their hands too, chugging it down every now and then. Their attention seemed to be focused on one thing; the people boxing. Kori and Donna couldn't exactly see who was up in the ring because of all the annoyingly excited people.

Not everyone was acting like some cheering idiot though. There was others that were off in the corner, somehow managing to read, or just talking with friends or maybe even strangers. Most of the people looked to be teenagers, or people in their twenties.

Nobody looked older than thirty and nobody looked younger than fourteen. It made Kori wonder how long this place had existed.

Gar had already walked in, greeting people, and leaving Kori and Donna to follow slowly but surely behind him. They kept their heads down like he said.

But Kori, she couldn't help herself. She looked up towards the ring and stood on her toes just long enough to see Victor in the boxing ring. Her emerald eyes couldn't look away and her body stopped moving altogether. She watched as the other male in the ring threw a punch at Victor's jaw, knocking her supposed friend back a few steps. She watched Victor snarl visibly before charging at his competition, throwing his fists down onto the guy, punching him so hard that you could see the blood from here. You could actually feel the guys pain from how hard and viciously Victor was hitting him. She was sure the other man might die from hits that rough, but he didn't.

Kori swallowed hard, unable to tear her eyes away even if she wanted to look away so badly. How could Victor do something so cruel? It felt like she no longer even knew what she thought was one of her best friends. "Victor," her words were a soft and an uneven murmur. She didn't even realize that Garfield's hand had wrapped around her arm and started tugging her away from the scene.

Hell.

Even Garfield seemed more like a friend right now than Victor Stone ever did.

* * *

><p><strong>Authors Note: <strong>_I'm sorry this is late. The last chapter I posted was like two days before Christmas. And on Christmas I ended up getting sick and I just didn't feel well enough to write this. Plus, I have some major big assignments that I have to do and they have been taking up most of my time. So, I apologize for the lateness of this chapter and how poorly it was written. _

_Anyways though, thank you for sticking along. Make sure to review!_


	5. Chapter 5

Maybe it was just wrong of her to think that Victor couldn't have any other life outside of the friendship that they shared, but as Gar dragged her away from the scene, along with Donna, she couldn't keep herself from feeling betrayed. But could anyone really be mad at her for feeling the way she is? She was just a girl, and like every other girl and boy in the world, they had emotions. She was allowed to feel betrayed if she wanted to, because it was just the way that she felt personally. She supposed there was much more awful things in the world happening than finding out that one of your two best friends was doing underground boxing behind your back and was practically punching the life out of someone right now, but oh well, this was her problem, not the worlds.

Eventually though, after being dragged away through the massive sea of sweaty bodies, Kori and Donna found themselves in a secluded room, away from all the things happening out there. You could still hear the shouting and yelling, but it was much more faded now. More relaxed. Surprisingly quiet, too.

Of course, the quietness did not last forever.

"What the _hell_ are those two doing here, Gar?" A female's voice hissed at the now apologetic Garfield Logan. Kori looked up to see who it was, thinking that maybe she would recognize the face and have someone else to get angry with, but it was a stranger. A person she had never witnessed before in her entire life, and that was saying a lot. The female was short, about the same height as Gar. Her entire being was pale, like she hadn't been kissed by the sun in years, but she was probably naturally pale. She also had black hair that had an odd purple tint to it, with an amazingly beautiful set of violet eyes. Stunning violet eyes. If Kori had to guess, which she did, she would give the female's age around the same as hers. It was hard to tell though.

"Why did you bring them here? Do you know how much trouble you're going to get into?" The female was clearly pissed and Gar was visibly shrinking, trying to murmur out some words but he couldn't manage them probably. "Do you ever use your brain?"

"Hey, leave him alone! We made him bring us here!" Donna barked. Kori had to admit that Donna had guts because Kori herself wasn't about to piss off that volcano.

"This doesn't concern you! You don't even know what's going on here and how much trouble me and him are going to be in for even associating with you both!" The female obviously was not afraid.

"Rae, calm down!" Gar put his hands up in surrender.

"MY NAME IS RACHEL, NOT RAE!" Kori, Donna, and Garfield all took a step back now. At least the female had a name now; Rachel.

"Look, th-they had a gun to me, Rae—I mean, Rachel! What was I suppose to do?" Gar whimpered and whined, his forest eyes begging.

"Let them kill you," Rachel muttered under her breath, but the words were loud enough to hear. "We're so screwed." She rubbed her temple and slumped into an old chair.

"I'm sorry," Gar mumbled, gazed down, and started kicking imaginary rocks.

"Okay," Rachel sighed, deep in her thoughts. "Okay, we need to get both of you out of here as soon as possible."

"What?" Donna blinked.

"I'm not repeating myself." Rachel deadpanned. "Did anyone important see them walk in with you?" Her question was for Gar, and he shook his head.

"We are not leaving," Kori stated firmly, yet her voice was soft. "We came here to talk to—"

Rachel interrupted, "No offence, but I already know who you came here to talk to, and I really don't care. Gar and I are getting you both out of here now. It's not optional."

"Give us one reason why we can't stay!" Donna folded her arms. They had walked through an old sewage system just to have to walk through it again? No thank you.

"So many reasons why. 1. Because Kori here is the granddaughter of the man that had basically built this wall that keeps us… safe. 2. Donna is the adopted granddaughter." Rachel seemed to know them by name. "And 3. YOU BOTH ARE NOT ALLOWED TO BE HERE, THAT'S WHY!"

Everyone took another step back from Rachel.

"Rachel." There it was, the firm voice of Victor Stone. "It's fine. I can handle them."

Donna and Kori both turned around, seeing the shirtless Vic stand in the decently made doorway with a towel so he could wipe away the blood and sweat from himself.

Rachel paused then began, "But Vic, you know—"

"It's okay, Rach," Vic put his hand up, silencing her. "You and Gar go make out somewhere, okay?" His tone was teasing, which made Kori smile just a tiny bit. That was the Victor Stone she knew.

Rachel and Garfield walked out, bickering about what Vic had said.

"So," Vic shut the door, leaving himself alone with Donna and Kori. "I'm guessing, judging by the gun sticking out of Dee's pocket—" A nickname he gave for Donna sometimes. "—that you threatened grass-stain and he ended up showing you lil ladies the way here." He seemed so nonchalant. It bugged Kori.

"Yeah," Donna said with nothing else.

The silence just remained after Donna's simple reply. What does anyone really say? What was Victor suppose to say? What was Kori suppose to say? What was anyone suppose to say? Kori just wanted answers and since Vic wasn't talking already it felt like she wasn't going to be getting any answers from anybody, except for the already known knowledge that Donna and herself were not welcomed here. Kori sort of understood the reasons, but she didn't like them, because they didn't really matter when you think about it. Was the fact she was the granddaughter of the creator that big of a deal around here that they had to force her away? Act like she was a… zombie?

"Look," Vic finally began, "I'm sorry I didn't tell ya'll about what I was doing, but you both have to understand that I just… couldn't! I mean, I still can't but you both had to be nosy and find it out yourselves." He chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck with his big hand. "To be honest, was kind of hoping you ladies would figure it out eventually. Now you both sort of have to be informed about as much information as will be given, except…" He trailed into a whisper, not carrying out his sentence and instead went back to his original words. "I'm sorry, I am, but it's probably best if you both do leave, and I'll tell ya'll everything you need to know in a few days when I come back up. I just…" Vic groaned. "There is much more going on here than you know." It felt like he was pleading now, pleading for them to leave safely.

Kori felt the sudden urge to protest, but this was her friend, and in certain circumstances, he'd leave if she asked. "Okay."

"What!?" Donna snapped her head towards Kori, "You got to be kidding me, Kori! We spent days looking for him and now you're willing to just leave, just like _that_, with no answered questions or anything! Bullshit! What was even the point of trying to find him if you were just going to give up on finding answers to begin with?"

"Donna," Kori's voice was soothing as she reached out towards her friend. "He would leave if the roles were reversed."

"Kori, don't even! If the roles were reversed, he would stomp his foot on the ground and stay!"

"Donna—"

"No, Kori! We're not leaving until we get answers."

"Your friend is right, Vic; they're not leaving." That was not the voice of anyone Kori and Donna knew. It was deep and dark; unfriendly.

"Oh shit," Vic hissed under his breath, wincing. "This one is on Gar, Dick."

The stranger—Dick—said, "It doesn't matter who is at fault here; it happened anyways." Truthfully, Kori was a bit threatened by the intruder. Of course, she was actually the one that was intruding.

The guy was tall though, not as tall as Vic, but he stood maybe two inches taller than Kori, which was saying a lot because Kori was indeed quite tall. His hair was black as the darkness itself and it swooped over his eyes a bit where she couldn't tell what color he possessed. His build was strong and nice; Kori would be lying if she said that she didn't find him attractive. He looked pale though, like he spent too much timing hiding in the shadows instead of playing in the sun. But he was intimidating, really. She had also never seen him before, and this walled-in city was small enough where you recognize faces when you see them. Maybe you can't put names on them, but you recognize. His name though, Dick, was something she had heard Gar say to Vic the first day they had become acquainted with each other. She could hear Gar's words clearly now like it was yesterday:

_"**Dick** is going to kill you! You were suppose to come back, like, last night, dude!"_

At the time, she had not thought much of it.

"We're not going with you," Donna laughed like it was a joke and it dragged Kori away from her thoughts. Apparently, Dick wanted them to follow him.

"And why not?" Dick sighed, like this was the millionth time he had to deal with someone similar to Donna.

"You're kidding, right?" Donna laughed again, but this time her laugh filled the air around everyone. "We don't know you! And we don't even know what is actually going on here, okay? So the last thing my friend and I are going to do is follow you, _asshole_." Kori couldn't stop herself, she giggled a bit behind Donna.

Kori could hear Dick groan before turning to Vic. "Don't take this the wrong way, Vic, but I have no time for them being stubborn... Wally!"

The girls could hear something creaking open before a new voice came from behind them, "Sorry, ladies." They both whipped around long enough to feel something being injected into their veins by needles and long enough to see green eyes staring at them, and long enough to see Victor sighing to himself in sorrow.

* * *

><p>Kori felt her body stirring awake, expecting that usually sunlight that she was so accustom to, but instead when she opened her emerald orbs, she was met with walls and a bed in the opposite corner that held her sleeping friend. She looked over to the side and saw a small cup of water sitting there for her. Suddenly, her mouth felt dry so she reached forward and downed the drink back, sighing in relief when the water soothed the dryness. The water tasted unusually good, more pure or something.<p>

Kori wasn't sure why it tasted so much better right now, but it wasn't really her concern. Her friend was her concern, and her unusual lack of memory. She pushed herself off the small bed and clambered her way over to Donna. Fear soaked in. What if her best friend was dead? No, no, no, she wasn't.

She reached Donna's bed, pushing herself up by using the wall to help her get up more. She reached, pressing her fingers against Donna's pulse to feel the soft and gentle, calm beats. She sighed in relief then the drowsiness hit her hard. Slumping up against the wall, Kori sunk down with her head falling between her legs. She wanted to remember so badly but she felt so drained in every way possible and she just wanted to make her way back to the small bed and start sleeping again.

But she couldn't do that, she needed to remember the events that had taken place.

Okay, step-by-step remembering.

Kori leaned back up against and pressed the back of her head against the chilly wall. "What did you do today?" She asked herself, prim.

_I woke up, _Her thoughts began answering, _With Donna. We were trying to find Victor... or... Garfield? Yeah, Garfield Logan. Did you end up finding one of them? Maybe? No? Yeah! We did. Donna and I ended up finding Gar, but he was running away from us so we had to chase him down. I think Donna knocked him out so we had to carry him back home. I remember Donna holding a gun to his head, which was funny. _Kori chucked tiredly, eyes blinking slowly before she continued in her head, _Then what happened? After Donna threatened him with the Gun, he took us somewhere. It was dark. Very dark. Why was it dark? What was it? It was dark because it was a tunnel or something. An old sewage system? I cannot remember. It is okay. Just continue. Yeah, okay. Gar had a match and he was taking us to Victor, then Victor greeted us. Did he really? ...No. Victor was fighting with someone, doing underground boxing. Yeah! That is what the place was, underground boxing. I was shocked. I did not enjoy viewing Victor fight with someone. It was bloody. Okay, so, I found Victor fighting then what happened? Gar dragged us away into a much more quieter room, away from all the cheering. Was there anybody in the room? Donna, Garfield, and myself. Anybody else though? I think there was a girl. What was her name? I do not remember her name but I think it began with an "R". Ruby? Robyn? Rosalie? Rae? Wait, that is close. It is Rachel. Her name was Rachel. She was angry at Gar for bringing us here and she wanted us to leave, but then... Then... Then what? Then Victor came in and they left. He started apologizing but he also wanted us to leave. Donna refused, and I assume that I did too. Then, there was someone else in the room. A boy or girl? A boy. ...Was he hot? Very much so, yes. Wait, that is not the point. What happened next? I do not remember because I was observing him. What did you remember next? Think, Kori! I... His name was... Dick. Like a penis? Yes. A Dick, he acted like one. Okay, what next? Dick wanted us to come with him, but Donna refused for us. We were not going to follow strangers. Dick had turned to Victor and told him something. I do not remember what he said though. It is not important, just continue. Then, once again, there was another voice that came behind us. It belonged to man who said sorry. I saw green eyes then felt something injected into me and then I woke up here. That is all I remember. Good._

Kori felt exhausted from her mental conversation, but the remembering helped her put a finger on where she was. She was assuming that she was still underground, because she knew for a fact this was not her room. It felt like a prison, but she didn't really know what prison felt like.

"Donna, where are we?" She breathed, so weak. Her friend did not answer though because she was still sleeping. Kori took a second to look around the area. It was just walls with no noticeable door anywhere. If there was no door though, then how could one get in or out?

Her mind couldn't be bothered to form a logical answer to that, so she didn't even try. Heavy-eyed, Kori climbed to her feet at a snail's pace before her vision now struck her as blurry. She whined, grabbing onto her head and wobbling her way to the bed. She fell against the slight softness of it, allowing her eyes to shut before she then willingly drifted into sleep.

Unsure of how long she had been sleeping, Kori awoke again. This time it was to the feeling of someone strapping something to her ankle. Instinct wanted her to react, but still this unusual tiredness was such a toll.

"The tiredness will go away soon." She recognized that voice. Who was it? Rachel!

"Rachel?"

"Yeah, that's me. I'm sort of surprised you remember that. Also, the blurriness will go away any second." How did she know about the blurriness?

Rachel was right though. In a few seconds, Kori's eyes adjusted and she saw clearly. "I can see," she stated.

"Yeah, most people do that." Rachel muttered under her breath sarcastically.

Kori couldn't help herself once again, she laughed a bit from the comment. She liked Rachel, but she was assuming that she wasn't Rachel's favorite person. "What are you putting on my ankle?"

"A tracking device."

"Oh, that is nice." Kori hummed, the answer going unnoticed for a few seconds before she shot up, elbows hitting the bed so she could sit up a bit. "Wait, a tracking device? We have that type of technology still?"

"Well, _we_ do," Rachel placed her hand against Kori's shoulder and pushed her back down, but the still drowsy girl just shot back up. "Ugh, you're really stubborn. I was hoping you would've slept for a few more days before you decided to go and wake up. Let me clarify even more: Wake up _and_ remember things." Kori could see Rachel rolling her eyes.

"What are you talking about? Why... What happened? What did they inject into me? And why?" You can't just go around injecting people with things like that! She was only trying to find her friend. "And is Donna okay?" Kori asked, eyes shifting to her still sleeping friend.

"Your friend is fine." The band around her ankle tightened at the hands of Rachel. "It was just a shot. Puts you to sleep and makes you forget. Some remember what happened, and some don't. Some also sleep for up to two weeks, and some sleep, like you for example, only for a day. The average it takes to wake is three to five days. You are a very odd case though. I mean," she leaned back in her chair, "You wake up, wobble around for a bit then make your way back to the bed to fall asleep for another day. Nobody has ever woke up to only go back to sleep after being injected with it. Vic did always say you were an interesting one."

Out of all the things Kori could have possible asked, she asked, "How did you know I felt back asleep?"

"I was watching you."

"How?"

"That vent." Rachel pointed up to the corner. _Oh_.

Silence passed then, "Why am I here? If what you said is true, that Donna and I have been here for about two days, then you surely know that people have noticed that me and her have disappeared. They will come looking for us; we are very important people."

"That's not going to be a problem. We have someone covering for us."

Kori scoffed, "Someone covering for you!? Honestly, how much trouble could you possibly get in for doing underground boxing? I mean, there is zombies roaming the world and do you all honestly think they will care about this?"

Rachel chuckled a bit, shaking her head and tucking a strand of violet tinted hair behind her ear. "You'd be surprised."

"And what do you mean who is covering for you? For me disappearance? Who could cover that?" Kori wanted to laugh and just tear a hole through the wall, which may seem odd, but that's just what she wanted to do. What she had thought was clear seemed to be suddenly very blurry.

"Would you stop with your fucking questions already? I can't tell you anything that could threaten what is going on, okay? Just shut up and let's go!" Rachel grabbed onto Kori's arm and yanked her out of bed. Kori stumbled on her feet as Rachel slammed her fist down against the wall. It cracked and creaked and started shifting to the side, opening up.

Well, Kori should have thought of punching the wall, but really how could of she? She had been so tired.

"Where are we going?" There Kori went again with another question.

"I said stop with the questions," Rachel growled and continued dragging the helpless girl. After a few quick turns, Rachel yelled, "SHE'S AWAKE!"

There was more creaking and shifting then another wall slid up open, revealing Victor and Dick standing there. Victor looked pleased, like he knew all along that she would be okay. His smile was huge, but there was hesitance, because he was resisting the urge to run towards her and spin her around to tell her how proud he was of her. Then, there was Dick, who looked... unreadable. Kori couldn't tell what was going on in his mind, but there was definitely something going on in there. Then, there was one last person in the corner, but the other was turning away.

From what Kori could tell, the other in the room was a girl, obviously. She had the body like one, but she was also surprisingly familiar despite the fact Kori couldn't see the other side of her.

"Nice to see you walking, lil' lady," Victor's voice filled that space and Kori managed her smile, relieved that Rachel had let go so Victor could wrap his arms around her.

"What's going on Victor?" Kori's voice merely whispered into his ear.

He didn't say anything, just hummed 'shhh' and tightened his grip.

Kori settled for a different question. "Is Donna going to be okay?"

"I hope so," Was her answer.

She pulled back from the embrace, hurt and disbelief splashed across her face. "What do you mean by that?" But then she quickly connected the dots. When injections get made like the ones used on Kori and Donna, there would have been people to test it out on first, and maybe the results weren't good; death for example. And sometimes, certain people don't survive because there body just can't do it. "Victor!" Kori thrashed and kicked at him, hitting his chest with her weak hands. "You could have killed her!"

"SHUT UP!" For once lately, that voice was familiar, so was the face that matched it when the other that stood in the corner turned around. "You are so annoying. Your friend will be fine, okay? Stop hassling Vicky, so we can just get to getting you and Donna home because covering for both of you is not how I wanted to waste my time, _little sister_."

"Kom?"

Well, that definitely explained how covering happened.

* * *

><p><strong>Authors Note: <strong>_Yup._


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